Years ago on my first trip to Israel, I saw the photo in Yad Vashem and it affected me just as it did when I first saw it as a child. Walking out of the museum and into the dappled sunshine overlooking the serene Jerusalem Forest, however, I couldn’t help but smile thinking the boy’s soul was now at peace.
On a more recent visit to Israel, I again saw the photo at Yad Vashem, this time with my wife. On our ride back from the museum, something incredible occurred, one of those “only in Israel” moments. We were on a crowded commuter bus when the pony-tailed secular-looking driver suddenly turned his radio louder for all to hear and soon everyone on the bus joined in the song with gusto. The words reverberated to my very soul: “I believe with complete faith in the coming of Mashiach…even though he may tarry, I await his coming every day.”
I knew this was the centuries-old affirmation of our faith. It had been sung in the cattle cars and gas chambers. And now it rang out on a bus driving through the streets of our eternal capital, teeming once again with Jewish life. Am Yisrael Chai.